


Poisonous

by SilverOwlCity



Series: Inktober 2018 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, Not Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-27 12:33:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16219127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverOwlCity/pseuds/SilverOwlCity
Summary: Peter Parker hadn’t liked the smell of lavender before he was bitten.





	Poisonous

**Author's Note:**

> Infinity War did not happen. Ragnarok may have - maybe just parts or the whole thing, I have yet to decide. Somewhat loosely uses the definition of poisonous correctly.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the MCU or any part of it. I'm doing this as part of Inktober which is a set of prompts, one for each day of October. The word of the day is not mine.

Peter Parker hadn’t liked the smell of lavender _before_ he was bitten. Since the bite, the smell had given him headaches and left him slightly nauseous. Not long after, he started buying a new brand of soap for the apartment to get rid of the smell. Of course, that doesn’t help with the perfume Aunt May sometimes uses. It wasn’t too often and he covered his nose with other scents (read: vanilla) when it happened, but it was still a nuisance.

He didn’t know why his aversion to it had increased, but he assumed it was something to do with his heightened senses. Truthfully, biology had never been his favorite science. Sure, he liked the genetics part, but he’d preferred chemistry overall.

So, when he got sick after eating a cupcake, he assumed he’d gotten the flu. His uncomfortableness and fatigue further supported the conclusion. He hadn’t remembered what type of cupcake it had been, but made note of when it happened again.

He had bought a half-dozen lemon-lavender cupcake from Liz and her friends at a bake sale. He’d smiled then entire time, grinning still as he left and bit into the first of his cupcakes. It only took ten minutes and two cupcakes before he’d felt nauseous and gone to the nurse. She’d called May and he’d gone home (but only after he’d redecorated her office floor).

Peter had given Ned the rest of his loot.

For a while, he’d thought it was some aversion to gluten or dairy or something else in cupcake mix. He’d avoided those things as much as he could, but couldn’t entirely. It was strange – nothing else made him quite as uncomfortable and sick. It was only when Ned and May guilted him into eating a birthday cupcake that he threw that out the window.

He discarded the events as unrelated coincidences. Eventually, Peter had almost forgotten that the events had even happened.

. . .

It was still weird visiting the tower after nearly a year since he started doing so. Mr. Stark had wanted to keep an eye on Peter and help him with his senses and other powers. That had soon turned to teaching the kid more about mechanics and engineering and programming. Soon, Peter was giving minor suggestions to help his mentor and building small devices and robots.

DUM-E, U, and Butterfingers were soon joined by a silver model similar to BB8 that Mr. Stark called RP. (It was short for Roly-Poly.) He made other, small robotic creatures like the two-spider bots he and Mr. Stark named Dungeons and Dragons. Well, Peter named them – Mr. Stark just groaned from the other side of his lab.

From there, they progressed to help with homework. Although, Mr. Rhodes, Happy, and Miss Potts were more help than Mr. Stark was. He might have been a genius, but he wasn’t very good at explaining things – especially when it came to History or English.

Homework turned into having May and Peter over for dinner. Dinner turned to movie nights. Eventually, Peter and May even wound up staying over some weekends. It was easier to keep Peter’s secret sometimes when they could all talk about it.

Aunt May refused Mr. Stark’s help and he respected that. There was nothing she found more invalidating than having someone else pay your bills for you. Instead, he told her she should apply for a job with Stark Industries as perhaps a desk clerk or assistant or something. He promised her a fair application process and made good on that promise.

It was a lucky thing that none of the other Avengers decided to return to the Tower after they received their pardons. Peter and May would have kicked their asses. (Then, they’d have let the others have a turn too.) However, when Bruce Banner and Thor returned from an odd adventure in space, they were welcomed back with opened arms.

Dr. Banner helped Peter when Mr. Rhodes could not and Mr. Stark was giving him a headache. He also became Peter’s personal physician when the boy got hurt on missions. Which was good – he was comfortable with Peter and Peter was comfortable with him.

So, when Aunt May decided to try out a new recipe for lavender-lemon chicken and Peter started vomiting profusely before passing out, she called Dr. Banner. He’d been rushed to Stark Tower by an Iron Man suit Dr. Banner had access to. Aunt May had been driven down by Happy.

He shook and threw up some more as his body tried to purge the food from his system. His fever spiked and his heartrate dropped. The small family he’d managed to acquire had been worried sick.

For three days he remained unconscious.

When he woke up, it was to Aunt May, Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner talking.

“. . . allergic to lavender?”

“He’s what?” Mr. Stark asked incredulously. “Who’s allergic to lavender? Is that even a thing?”

“I didn’t know. He’s never had a problem with it until now,” Aunt May said. It sounded like she’d been crying. “He used to drink honey-lavender tea when he was sick.”

“Well,” Dr. Banner replied, dragging the word out. “It may have something to do with his . . . abilities.”

“Meaning?” May demanded.

There was the sound of skin on skin. “Of course!” Mr. Stark growled. “Lavender repels spiders.”

“Yes, but instead of just repelling Peter, it seems that when the genetics mixed, he developed an allergy to the plant.”

Peter groaned. Great, just great.

“Pete?”

He groaned in response to the voices.

“You’d better wake up, Peter Benjamin Parker or I’ll ground you for life.”

Peter huffed a short laugh. He could practically feel May smile.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry, Peter.”

“’s’okay. You didn’t know. I didn’t know. ‘s’okay.”

His aunt pressed a soft kiss to his forehead and he drifted off to sleep.


End file.
